Have a mascot

[mcollina]

It was recently pointed out on twitter by @bnb and @marco-ippolito that Node.js does not hav mascot.

How about making the old unofficial one official? I mean the 🐢🚀!

I think we would need to get a “fresh” drawing done (maybe with a contest).

Previous art: https://github.com/node-forward/discussions/issues/33

cc @rginn

[marco-ippolito]

A contest would be amazing! I would leave it open to new ideas, maybe something totally new 😄

[DominusKelvin]

Wow, I didn't even know there was an old unofficial mascot.

[EddyVinck]

If a frog is chosen then a “it’s Wednesday my dudes” meme can be posted every week, which would be a huge plus

[ovflowd]

^{I can be the mascot, Im already a joke 🤡}

Okay, now for all seriousness, I love the idea of the turtle and the V8 rocket ✨

[UlisesGascon]

I think we would need to get a “fresh” drawing done (maybe with a contest).

Yes! The community will love it 👏

I see a lot of potential for swag! We all love stickers! ☺️🐢

[VoltrexKeyva]

I think we would need to get a “fresh” drawing done (maybe with a contest).

Absolutely, though I also agree with what @marco-ippolito said, new ideas would be good too.

[sheplu]

Yes ! 200%

Why not a community contest ? Would also be nice to be able to have the mascot as a 3D printable file (stl) for fun 🐢🚀

[GeoffreyBooth]

Not sure if a turtle is the best look. We have a hexagon theme on our site, we could go with a honeybee to complement the honeycomb theme.

[fabiospampinato]

Not sure if a turtle is the best look. We have a hexagon theme on our site, we could go with a honeybee to complement the honeycomb theme.

The turtle's shell is made of green hexagons 😉 That image is so good on so many levels.

[marco-ippolito]

My only concern with the turtle is that is usually associated with being slow 😅

[adamphivo]

My only concern with the turtle is that is usually associated with being slow 😅

Well as we say in french : ne pas confondre vitesse et precipitation !

A turtle can be seen as an animal moving steadily, that's fine for me :D

https://read.gov/aesop/025.html

[ovflowd]

Isn't the Deno logo also sort of a turtle?

I also think that even tho turtles are slow, they are steady and live long ;D

[rkaw92]

This is what the Node.js homepage looks like on a 4K screen. You're on to something!

[THernandez03]

This is what the Node.js homepage looks like on a 4K screen. You're on to something!

fixed

[JacobMGEvans]

Matteo... hear me out South African Rain Frog

https://twitter.com/JacobMGEvans/status/1702706027358036189

[rginn]

Let's do this! I'm a rocket turtle fan with a new design. Or...a rocket tortoise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tortoise_and_the_Hare

cc: @kyliewd

[ljharb]

+1 for a redesigned rocket turtle

[kyliewd]

Love this! I will start doing some thinking 🤓 💻

[developedbyjay]

would love another design apart from the turtle

[bnb]

Not sure if a turtle is the best look. We have a hexagon theme on our site, we could go with a honeybee to complement the honeycomb theme.

I believe when we were working with someone from LinkedIn, they actually took it upon themselves to do a full mascot treatment with a bee. They put a lot of work into it, and I appreciate it, but my recollection was that it wasn't quite what anyone involved with the website redesign was expecting/felt represented Node.js. I'm not sure where that treatment is, but I assume it still exists somewhere.

I'm fine with rocket turtle/redesigned rocket turtle, but would expressly prefer we don't use a frog for... uh... U.S. political reasons.

[bnb]

Isn't the Deno logo also sort of a turtle?

@ovflowd no, Deno is a dinosaur.

[ovflowd]

Isn't the Deno logo also sort of a turtle?

@ovflowd no, Deno is a dinosaur.

Oh true!!

[juanmnl]

I don't think i'll have more time to invest in this, but here are the assets of the retweet from @JacobMGEvans Maybe someone wants to keep iterating or put in a shared figma file, or other. (.fig file and svgs for the variations)

Do whatever you want with it in the name of OSS spirit 😅

node frog (svgs & fig file).zip

[ljharb]

i'd also echo @bnb's comment that a frog - especially a green one - should be a nonstarter for US political reasons (even though frogs are cute and i like the previous comment's artwork)

[JacobMGEvans]

i'd also echo @bnb's comment that a frog - especially a green one - should be a nonstarter for US political reasons (even though frogs are cute and i like the previous comment's artwork)

Awww DAMMIT, I googled frog and "US political reasons"... Yeah I agree, thanks for the callout @ljharb & @bnb

Context: https://www.adl.org/resources/hate-symbol/pepe-frog

[juanmnl]

oh crap, I completely agree @ljharb. Being not US'ian I wasn't aware of that. Sorry! 🥹

[kibertoad]

We can still do a turtle, though.

[juanmnl]

I know this is not what was suggested (🐢🚀) but in a burst of inspiration i went for something more abstract (it can become anything though, a 👻, 🐢, ☠️ , etc.) i just love how this simple shapes can scale. There are 3 different eye shapes for character variants. It's also an example of how you can be playful with the file and/or the svgs if anyone wants to iterate over, or test things. (files attached)

node eeaao (svgs & fig file).zip

[adeleke5140]

I have really enjoyed working with NodeJS and would be glad to see it have an official mascot.

I am not a graphic designer so not sure how I could contribute.

[thebergamo]

At least for me since beginning of usage of NodeJS the turtle with rocket was always seemed as the true mascot of Node. So I would vote also for a rebump of it.

Feel free to use my cat(profile pic, but he was too young in the pic, nowadays he is lazy and fatty , like Garfield haha) which is also Node hehe

[mmomtchev]

There are relatively few green animals that look good inside a round shape (a grasshopper is not round, neither is a lizard, a snake, an alligator or a centipede) - which means that there are few options besides a frog or a turtle. It is a pity for the frog, because it seems to be everyone's favorite. I am not sure that a stylized frog wouldn't be ok - just don't make it look like Pepe which would be bad taste anyway - a meme is a bad choice for a mascot no matter what else it is used for. Maybe you should ask a PR consultant.

[VyrekXD]

i approve the idea of a tortoise

[toni-sharpe]

Maybe the competition is to come up with the best way to use this potentially huge platform in "tech for good" way. The principles, subsequent behaviours and comunication methods (broadness, credibility, unpreachy) of the mascot would be the first design challenge, the visual would then follow - in my head mascots are not just drawings, they're usually people. There's a whole bunch of things, global healthcare, climate, education of women, vaccine distribution, etc.

It's a good challenge competition-wise as well, the mad bit of my brain says get companies that use Node to compete on this one rather than (or with) contributors, as they might have a bit of cash and/or brains to fire the rocket up.

These are just my quick ideas though. There are better ones for sure! The mascot could forgo swag and hand out donations, TB vaccines for example, or better, offer a choice for the "unswagged"? Or, could they make a point of being resource negative; or, focus on women's education outside our bubble?

[[ I did some number searches - successfully, once I got past the unqualified search giving just US results then adding "global" producing eager node educators - and I'm sure there'll be folk here that know more than my short search - but here's a few: 30 million websites globally - 36% of devs globally (~10mil) - 2% of the entire web - 85 countries - most popular at start-ups - sat under some of the biggest tech brands inc Netflix, Ebay, Amazon and Reddit. ]]

An example in the real world: https://www.moretondaily.com.au/news/mascots-with-a-message - coincidentally one is a turtle.

[yonivy]

Hmm... everyone is suggesting animals, that's boring. Why not use something different which everybody loves - ice cream! Other foods can also work... well maybe not buns :)

[italojs]

use AI generators for it is prettry fun

[ljharb]

I think it would be a much wiser choice and much better look for node to pay an actual human artist for whatever mascot the project chooses.

[dhenson02]

Let's have a contest, post it to hackernews, winner gets $1000. I'll help contribute to the pot.

[omrilotan]

Velocifire mascot from 99 design

[chrisdickinson]

+1 for rocket turtle. I made one for the nodebugme project ~a while back~ almost a decade ago (oh my god), happy to donate it / or for others to use it however:

It comes with a bonus "late 90s PC shouting 'API'" version, too.


pixelmator assets live here

[ThisIsMissEm]

I'm not sure why everyone's loving turtles here.. I always think of node.js as in "node in a network", so perhaps a little circle stick-figure type character. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[chrisdickinson]

@ThisIsMissEm Oh! The "rocket turtle" was Node's unofficial mascot ca. the <0.5 days, pre-2011 – the illustration @mcollina posted is by James Halliday, AKA Substack, who was one of the early node community's most influential contributors. IIRC it's in reference to the V8 "rocket engine" speeding up the JavaScript language (I'd be kind of sad to see the turtle go, though I understand it's not got the most relevance anymore!)

[robbieferrero]

arachNode? With a cute cartoon spider? 🤷🤷

[monico-moreno]

How about instead of a turtle or frog, we say it's a toad (w/a rocket?), which rhymes with Node.

e.g. "Toby the Node Toad" 😉 " 'Tobe' the Toad, for Node" 🤣

[ThisIsMissEm]

@ThisIsMissEm Oh! The "rocket turtle" was Node's unofficial mascot ca. the <0.5 days, pre-2011 – the illustration @mcollina posted is by James Halliday, AKA Substack, who was one of the early node community's most influential contributors. IIRC it's in reference to the V8 "rocket engine" speeding up the JavaScript language (I'd be kind of sad to see the turtle go, though I understand it's not got the most relevance anymore!)

I'm well aware @chrisdickinson, I've been around in the community since the 0.0.95 days, you just mightn't recognise me today :)

[chrisdickinson]

@ThisIsMissEm D'oh, my apologies! I wanted to give some context around why everyone was loving turtles for those missing it. (Sorry again!)

[mcollina]

@nodejs/tsc should we delegate to the OpenjS marketing committee to organize a contest and then have us (or a subset of the TSC) as final judges?

[kyliewd]

@nodejs/tsc should we delegate to the OpenjS marketing committee to organize a contest and then have us (or a subset of the TSC) as final judges?

@mcollina currently working on a plan and will contact the TSC very soon. 😄

[kwhinnery]

A new rocket turtle would be rad.

[bnb]

FWIW, as a collaborator and someone who has been through multiple iterations of the "we should have a mascot" discussion, I would highly recommend we try to avoid design by committee. It's worked once in the past (io.js logo was a design by committee, IIRC) and never again. I would like to see this find success, so felt obligated to say this 😅

[Creskendoll]

What about a cute little capybara?